8.04: Lock down settings

[djsephiroth]

Pessulus is a bit lacking. Sabayon is crash city, and is also a bit lacking. What is the direct method of, say, removing access to the "System" entry in the top gnome panel, locking all of the panels, and not allowing any desktop or system settings to be changed? The only thing these machines will be used for is a combination of web browsing and office productivity (document creation and the like). I don't want users doing anything else: no changing the desktop, no altering network connection settings, etc. Thanks,

- Sephi

[MasterNetra]

Essentially you want to Microsoft it?

[Gouki]

Essentially you want to Microsoft it?

I'm sure I won't be the only one who was no idea of why that was said.

As for the question itself, I was going to recommend Pessulus, but it seems you're not into it. If you're using KDE as the DE, you can take a look at http://extragear.kde.org/apps/kiosktool/.

[Panzor]

Well you could always have them log in as a user that isn't in the sudoers file. This way they can't edit network settings or any root-related things. Of course they still have control over their /home directory so they can customize how they want. You have your reasons, I'm sure, but I don't see why you would have to limit it past a regular user's rights. On the public linux boxes at college, that's what they do. People still change their desktop images and customize how they want, but I really don't see a problem in that. It just makes them more productive after a little customization, no?

Anyway, sorry if that was a pointless post, just fruit for thought.

[bodhi.zazen]

There are a few threads on how to do this, search google.

Here is one thread with several suggestions :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=437578

[djsephiroth]

Well you could always have them log in as a user that isn't in the sudoers file. This way they can't edit network settings or any root-related things. Of course they still have control over their /home directory so they can customize how they want. You have your reasons, I'm sure, but I don't see why you would have to limit it past a regular user's rights. On the public linux boxes at college, that's what they do. People still change their desktop images and customize how they want, but I really don't see a problem in that. It just makes them more productive after a little customization, no?

Anyway, sorry if that was a pointless post, just fruit for thought.
Not pointless at all! In fact, that was precisely what I was looking for. Will try that ASAP. Thanks for the suggestion.

To satisfy curiosity: some of the users' tastes are... less than suitable for the rest of the userbase; ergo, in the interests of professionalism and other users' sanity, I want to lock down desktop settings.


If you're using KDE as the DE, you can take a look at http://extragear.kde.org/apps/kiosktool/.
Shiny. I'm using gnome solely because it's the default DE, but I've always preferred KDE. Perhaps I can make use of this tool should we switch to KDE.

[djsephiroth]

OK, so I edited the permissions for %gconf.xml in the users' home folder to be owned by the administrator account, and have permission bits set to 755. Nautilus gave some error after the first boot, but nothing appeared to actually be amiss. After that one error, it's nice and quiet. I can change the color of the top panel, but that's about it.

Any other files I should chown and chmod to keep users from changing settings?

[EDIT] Spoke too soon. I can log in as the user and change the desktop background settings. At some point after chowning and chmodding the right file(s), something undoes the permissions I set, causing %gconf.xml to be owned by the user and not the administrator. What would be changing this setting without asking for explicit permission?

[bodhi.zazen]

google search for ubuntu and an internet kiosk.

KDE offers a potential solution (although I have no experience with it)

http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/kiosk/index.html

[djsephiroth]

I'm looking at KDE's Kiosk mode, and it seems viable. I prefer KDE anyway, so I may just go with Kubuntu.

This is a rather simple-looking solution: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/Deepfreeze_for_Linux

I also found a solution on the MS side of things: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx

That said, none of this answers the question I posed: why are the permissions for %gconf.xml reset after I change them to be 750?

edit bodhi.zazen: removed provocative comments. Let's keep this conversation on topic please.

My apologies.

Were I to take an Ubuntu install and convert it into a Kubuntu install, would I just install KDE and toss Gnome? Would there be anything else that I should change?